It is high time for all of us to encourage our children to drink milk because they have been drifting away from it due to so many market driven forces .They have to be educated that the Milk is such an important natural nutrient which is so nutritious and boost the energy of the body instantly. Children must be discouraged from drinking soft drinks , the habit of which has been adversely affecting the health and hygiene of younger generations. Balbir Singh Sidhu, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Minister made this passionate appeal to all the parents while delivering keynote address at the state level seminar held at National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and research, sector 26 to celebrate the World Milk Day.At the same time the Minister exhorted all the farmers to opt for Dairy Farming to supplement their income. He asked
the farmers to cut down the production cost and increase the market share of milk in the organised sector. He said that at the present scenario farmers should focus on increasing the productivity of milk instead of increasing the number of milch animals. "World Milk Day" was celebrated by Punjab Dairy Development Board in collaboration with Indian Dairy Association (NZ) Punjab Chapter, Milkfed Punjab and Baani Milk Producer Company Patiala . The theme of the seminar was "Sustainable Growth in Indian Dairy".The celebration was a multi-faceted activity with the core idea of highlighting the importance of milk for the human health as well as the need to step up the policies and extension programmes connected with the promotion of dairy sector in Punjab. The seminar was presided over by Sh. Raj Kamal Chaudhary, IAS, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Dairy Development. Indian Dairy Association North Zone was represented by Shri Ramesh Kumar Chugh, Member IDA (NZ). Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu appreciated the move of the department to hold this seminar towards celebrations of World Milk Day as it would send valuable message to the dairy farmers and the dairy professionals in the State of Punjab to step up their interaction and initiatives to keep the state among the leading milk producing states and to maintain sustainability in quality milk production as well as promoting welfare of dairy farmers of the state.
Further Mr. Raj Kamal Chaudhary, IAS, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Dairy Development in his address while throwing light on the historical background of the Dairy Sector of State of Punjab, highlighted the achievements made by it under the dynamic approach of the State Govt. towards promotion of dairy sector in Punjab as dependable support system for the dairy farmers to the grass root level. He stated that Punjab is one of the leading states in clean milk production and currently the schemes, policies and programmes are hugely focused on penetrating deep into promotion of dairy extension activities and achieving sustainability. He told that despite the world wide serious recession in the dairy sector, the State of Punjab has provided attractive milk price to its dairy farmers with adequate support in disposal of their milk. He emphasized upon the technical experts and the dairy technocrats to lend their valuable support to enable the state to achieve its vision of bailing out the small dairy farmers from the financial constraints by ensuring them prestigious milk price through emphatic use of latest dairy implements and techniques. At the same time they may also work for promoting progressive dairy farmers who could act as role model for upliftment of the small farmers.On this occasion Mr. Kahan Singh Pannu, IAS, Secretary, Agriculture and Mission Director, Mission Tandrust Punjab spoke against the menace of adulteration. He advised the dairy professionals to join hands with the Tandrust Punjab Mission to fight against the milk adulterators. He highlighted the various issues related to adulteration tackled by the Mission during the last year.Mr. Uttam Kumar. GM (hq) Milkfed briefed the gathering that how emphatically the cooperative milk plants and cattle feed plants in the State are carrying out the activities related to procurement, processing and marketing of milk, milk products and feed to ensure prosperity of the dairy farmers in the state through quality milk production on fair price of their milk.
Dr. A.K Shrivastava, Member, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board spoke about the importance of milk in human life and congratulated the Dairy Development Department, Milkfed, Punjab Chapter of Indian Dairy Association and other collaborators for having arranged a Seminar on sustainability and growth of dairy sector on the eve of World Milk Day. He called upon all the people connected with the Dairy Sector to give out their best so that the health and farmer welfare get the best attention.S. Inderjit Singh, Director Dairy Development Punjab and Chairman, Indian Dairy Association (NZ) Punjab Chapter extended warm and heartiest welcome to the Chief Guest, other dignitaries, technical speakers, all the participants/delegates, departmental functionaries and the member of the Press and Media. He spoke about the background of the World Milk Day, history of dairy activities and the pursuits of the dairy people to promote milk as a integral part of health and producer prosperity. Highlighting the nutritional goodness of milk, he urged the technical speakers and the dairy technocrats to take promotion of dairy and its sustainable development as the everlasting challenge and devote their valuable time and energy to achieve landmark success in this direction. He also appreciated the valuable support and cooperation extended by Milkfed Punjab and Baani Milk Producer Company and conveyed his gratitude for this gesture to the Managing Director, Milkfed and the Chief Executive Officer of Baani Milk Producer Company.Dr. Nitika Goyal, Assistant Professor, College of Dairy Science and Technology, GADVASU, Ludhiana made a detailed and illustrative presentation explaining the constituents of milk and the utility of each of them for the human health. Sh. Harsev Singh, Business Head, Agriculture Skill Council of India highlighted the latest techniques and inputs related to the Sourcing of Milk for better quality.
Mr. Harkesh Chand Sharma, Political Secretary/ Animal Husbandry Minister was also present on this occasion.